Interactions Between the Local and the Global: Brokers and go-betweens within the Portuguese State of India (1500 - 1700)

Abstract

It is commonplace to locate the First Global Age in the period between 1500 and 1800 and present the European Overseas Expansion as one of the main levers of this process. However, interactions occurred locally and many localities were involved in the process. Recent and not so-recent historiography has stressed how cross-cultural and cross-imperial relations as well as cooperation and self-organization mechanisms have to be taken into consideration in order to understand the dynamics and the outputs arising from such a globalization process. This paper argues that the achievements required for the building of a global world depended to a great extent on agents of mediation, operating as formal and informal brokers and go-betweens. Following the fruitful path opened long ago by Michael Pearson, this contribution will develop an empirical analysis of the performance of such agents, within the Portuguese State of India, in the domains of economy, society and knowledge transfer.